Alaskans file to repeal Senate Bill 21

BANCHORAGE — A new non-partisan group seeking repeal of an oil tax cut says the measure approved by state legislators was a massive giveaway that will benefit major oil companies and hurt Alaskans.Members of Vote Yes! Repeal the Giveaway on April 18 announced the referendum’s prime sponsors are former state Sen. Vic Fischer, former Alaska First Lady Bella Hammond, and former Fairbanks North Star Borough Mayor and state Rep. Jim Whitaker.Fischer was part of the Alaska Constitutional Convention. He labeled the tax break “unconstitutional.”Fischer says lawmakers have an obligation to manage Alaska’s natural resource for the maximum benefit of Alaskans, not shareholders of BP, ExxonMobil and Conoco Phillips.The group must obtain more than 30,000 signatures by a 90-day deadline to see the measure on the 2014 primary ballot.“SB 21 reduces Alaskans’ oil income by some $1 billion per year, transferring that wealth from citizen resource owners to multinational oil companies. As a result of this oil wealth giveaway, the governor’s own staff projects a $1.6 billion budget deficit next year. SB 21 contains no guarantees of new oil production, and oil executives testified to the Alaska Legislature that there isn’t a single new project that would move forward as a result of this bill,” the repeal group said in a press release.